The last piece of the puzzle is here! Jay's passport came today. There's nothing more entertaining than a tiny baby passport. She looks like a miniature convict. I hope customs doesn't get suspicious! Here's recent picture of our little lady. Can't wait to see her in person!

We're 6 visits away from 10,000 blog hits. Thank you for all your support. It is great to know we're not alone in this.

It is done. The dossier that is. Actually both dossiers (doh-see-aye) are done. There's one for Registration and one for court. They've left the building and are on their way now to her home country for translation and submission. There is nothing left for us to do. It feels great to have that part over with. It was harder than I thought it would be. I hate paper chasing, turns out and I really don't like nagging people and asking multiple times for them to do one thing. So glad it is over with! Now though, the worry sets in. Luckily we have prayer for that and I'm sure all in good time we'll have our first travel invite. We get to make three trips in all. One to accept the referral (of course!) and one for court and then after court there is a 30 day wait before the decision is final and we can come collect our prize. Until then we will try to live our normal lives and not act like our minds are elsewhere in a foreign land. We just can't wait. We're getting close little lady. I know you don't know it but your people do and we can't wait to thank them for keeping you safe and happy until we get there. These boys are excited to have you. They've got your room all ready and your toothbrush too. I'm sure they'd even let you lick the bowl. First.

We love you!!!

Two steps forward... One step back. Today's step back came in the form of my age old nemesis, the homestudy agency. These people...grr. After having an assignment for more than a month I contact them and offer to gather the information myself just to speed things along. The information was concerning rights of the adopted child in our home state. So I get the info, hubby writes up the summary and emails it to them. Simple, right? Well rather than getting back to us with the completed document I end up contacting them after 6 days of hearing nothing and then they mention that the other two docs I needed from the copy of their license and letter of good standing are also going to be a problem. Their license expires on the 23rd of this month so we have to wait until they get the new license (two weeks) before we can complete the dossier. Oh and they have no idea what a letter of good standing is. The super amazing international agency filled them in on that one but I imagine they won't have one ready for me until I nag it out of them. I hate nagging. Just do your job. On a more positive note everything else for the dossier is completed, ready to be apostilled and sent for translation in the little lady's home country. In the mean time I will introduce our littlest lady who was born on February 1st. She was 8 days early which was great for me.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9lmnu3k3pLUWU7t5RSGCwiIildlh7s666fgfZO7iE0mLatIyembY0NCBifUVXNXPZIkWNnzHG9QddOyDNSLi4J_NOesn2QF716S_AgmBm6oxSQmNlXhkIdhe3mVKipkfNGA3RNeZj2_g/s320/IMG_0052.jpg She was 7lbs 4oz and I believe 19 inches long. Her birth was fantastic, probably one of best natural hospital births, at least in my experience. She's a fabulous addition. The boys love her to death but they like me are now anticipating the arrival of their other sister. All three of them know they have two sisters and are begging to have both of them home. We can't wait to our face next to hers in a photo and for her to meet her little sister and get to see pictures and videos of her brothers for the first time. That will be a fabulous day. Thanks for all your encouragement. We're close but STILL no cigar.

Are you kidding me?!?! That was an ENORMOUS donation. I literally almost fell out of my chair when I saw how the fund had grown. Then I had goosebumps and then the tears came. We don't know who to thank exactly yet but let me just say it is so wonderfully encouraging to know that we aren't in this alone. Knowing people believe in us and her and her right to have a family means so much. It builds us up and provides that extra boost we need. There are so many people who second guess a decision to adopt; thank heaven for you kind souls who see the dream and help make it a reality. Every dollar gets us that much closer to her. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Approved!! It came today! Our USCIS approval came TODAY! That means the government has given us the go ahead to bring an orphan into our country and our family. All the homestudy hard work paid off and all the necessary information was present for them to give us the go ahead without needing any extra info. This is the last big piece of the dossier. We're so close to submitting all our paperwork to the little lady's government. Pretty soon we'll be on a flight to meet the sweetie! Oh and a HUGE HUGE thank you to those who donate! All these funds will go directly toward our flights. I can't believe we're this close!!!!!!!

USCIS
So we sent in the "petition to adopt an orphan" and we got a letter today saying they've cashed our check and will soon be notifying us of our appointment for fingerprints.  This is the final step in our dossier so it is very exciting.  Just knowing our paperwork made it to them safely and that I suppose everything was correct is a huge sigh of relief for me.  I felt like a mom on the first day of preschool barely able to hand that envelope over to the UPS man.  I'm sure it is twice as nerve wracking with the dossier but I look forward to that. 
I am missing our sweet lady so much these days.  Yes, I've never meet her but we got some recent pics the other day and just seeing how much she's grown makes me long to be there that much more.  I love knowing that we're close to being invited to travel but passing day I wonder "am I doing all I can?".  She is going to mean so much to our family.  I love the responsibility of raising daughters and all that that entails.  I can't wait!  I can tell she is spunky but kind-hearted and I long for the day when all our personalities can come together for the ultimate family blend. 
I have now reached "term" with this pregnancy (37 weeks) so my family is here awaiting the birth and helping with the day to day until then.  We're making steps in the right direction.  Holidays, new baby, new daughter.  You're next on the list sweet girl!  We love you.  Now will you please encourage your dad to decide on name??  For the first time in 4 children he's not letting mommy choose.  I'm sure he has something outstanding in mind for his little princess we just need to encourage him to decide.